Belarus-born Michael Baxte immigrated with his family to the United States as a young boy. There the family lived in New Orleans. Michael then studied music in Europe until 1913 and worked as a violinist and composer, but returned to New York where he began painting. He married French-Algerian painter Violette Clarissa Mège (1889–1968) and settled with her in France in the 1930s. With the beginning of World War II both returned to the U.S. and eventually moved to Mexico because of his Jewish ancestry. Baxte mainly painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes.